DENVER – It may wind up being the quickest “Fight of the Night” in UFC history.

Melvin Guillard had bad intentions against Donald Cerrone early – and had “Cowboy” on the ropes in front of his home Denver fans. But Cerrone survived a big flurry of knees and punches from Guillard, his former training partner – and then, in a dramatic turnaround, knocked Guillard out just 1:16 into the first round. It was the first KO loss of Guillard’s career.

The lightweight bout served as the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 150 event at Pepsi Center in Denver. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

Cerrone threw a high left kick right out of the gate that missed. And quickly after, Guillard clipped Cerrone with a left hook. Cerrone was stunned and Guillard immediately came forward with knees.

But after Cerrone survived the flurry and got his wits back, he glanced a high left kick off Guillard’s head that dazed him. And while Guillard’s hands were down, Cerrone teed off with a perfect fight-finishing right hand.

Guillard hit the deck, and that was all Cerrone needed. He moved in for what he said was going to be a rear-naked choke to finish – not any extra strikes on the ground. But he didn’t need them.

“Man – just walking out there, I got teary-eyed,” Cerrone said. “Fighting at home in Denver is what I’ve been dreaming of all these years. When I got clipped right away in the first, I was just thinking, ‘Oh (crap), I better figure this out pretty quick here.’ Coach Mike (Winkeljohn), Greg Jackson and I all game-planned for this and it turned out well. When the time came to go in for the kill, I was ready to go for a choke if the ref didn’t stop it. That was my next move, but I didn’t have to go there.

“I’m going to the lake tomorrow and drinking some beers. As far as what’s next, if Pettis is ready, then there’s no need to call me out on Twitter before my fight. Just sign on the dotted line and train for a few weeks and let’s go.”

Cerrone and Guillard formerly trained together at Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn’s camp in Albuquerque, N.M. Guillard now trains in Florida with the Imperial Athletics team. And for this camp, Cerrone trained for four weeks in Vail, Colo., rather than working exclusively with Jackson and Winkeljohn – the coaches who were famously in the middle of a camp split between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.

Cerrone (19-4-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC), who was born in Denver and grew up in Colorado Springs, now has nine wins in his past 10 fights. Guillard (47-12-3 MMA, 11-7 UFC) falls back into the loss column for the third time in four fights.

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